FinTech Adoption in SMEs and Bank Credit Supplies: A Study on Manufacturing SMEs
2023Rehman SU, Al-Shaikh MS, Washington PB, Lee E, Song Z, Abu-AlSondos IA, Shehadeh M, Allahham M
Economies, 11(8), 213
Research · Issue area · FinTech Consumer Equity
Consumer-Facing FinTech Adoption and Equity
Buy-now-pay-later, alternative credit data, and FinTech-driven small-business credit have produced uneven outcomes for under-resourced households and SMEs. Which products genuinely expand access — and which extract from the populations they serve?
Behavioral and structural evidence on FinTech adoption among under-resourced consumers and small enterprises — informing consumer-protection regulation, financial-inclusion policy, and SME-credit programs.
About this issue area
Buy-now-pay-later platforms targeted at low-income consumers grew approximately five-fold between 2019 and 2024, with consumer-protection enforcement lagging the product proliferation. Alternative credit-data products have produced uneven outcomes for under-resourced households. FinTech adoption in small and mid-sized enterprises shows significant cross-sector and cross-country variation that has implications for credit-supply policy and for financial inclusion more broadly.
The Institute of FAME's research base in this area centers on Rehman et al. (2023, Economies), which examines FinTech adoption and bank credit supplies in manufacturing SMEs — establishing the firm-level adoption-determinants framework the institute extends in subsequent research. A companion paper currently under review at Sustainability examines FinTech and gender disparities in EU sustainable-investment intentions, with direct implications for the gender-and-financial-inclusion agenda.
The issue area's research questions span: which FinTech products genuinely expand access for under-resourced consumers and which extract from them; which institutional and behavioral conditions predict productive FinTech adoption in SMEs; how alternative credit-data products affect access and outcomes for borrowers traditionally underserved by mainstream credit; and how consumer-protection regulation should evolve in response to FinTech product innovation.
Evidence base
FAME-funded and affiliated research in this area
Peer-reviewed publications that anchor FAME's standing in this issue area.
Active programs
FAME programs producing evidence in this area
Where FAME stands
Institutional positions on questions in this area
Question
What policy interventions productively expand FinTech adoption in small and mid-sized manufacturing enterprises?
FinTech adoption in manufacturing SMEs is shaped substantially by firm-level factors (institutional readiness, prior digital-financial-service engagement, bank-relationship structure) that are responsive to targeted policy intervention. Generic FinTech-promotion programs without firm-level support produce uneven adoption that excludes precisely the sub-categories of SMEs (smaller firms, less-well-banked sectors, female-founded SMEs) whose access expansion would deliver the strongest financial-inclusion gains. The institute supports targeted SME-credit and FinTech-adoption programs that incorporate firm-level capability-building, distinguished from broad-stroke FinTech-promotion frameworks.
Adopted 2026-05-08
See the full Positions surface for the institute's positions across all issue areas.
Forthcoming outputs
- — Policy brief on FinTech adoption determinants in small and mid-sized enterprises
- — Policy brief on BNPL consumer-protection priorities for under-resourced households
- — Small invitation-only convening on FinTech consumer-protection priorities (Year 1)
- — Regulatory comments on CFPB BNPL- and credit-data-related rulemakings
Policy actors we engage in this area
- CFPB Bureau of Consumer Protection
- FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection
- State Attorneys General consumer-protection units
- National Consumer Law Center
- Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
- Pew Charitable Trusts Consumer Finance team